This recipe almost turned me off with the thought of “warm cottage cheese”. I’m a purest when it comes to cottage cheese. I like a little salt and a little pepper on my cold cottage cheese. Warm cottage cheese gives me the willies. But, for the sake of adventure, I figured I’d try this appetizer dip…and I’m glad I did.

The original recipe also called for marinated artichokes and regular sun-dried tomatoes. Since I was on a binge of cleaning out my larder, I used marinated sun-dried tomatoes and regular artichoke hearts soaked in water. I also did a little tinkering with the ingredients to cut down some of the fat.. I opted to use both a fat-free cottage cheese and a fat free Greek yogurt. I knew that the oil from the sundried tomatoes and the cheddar cheese would help keep the dip moist.

Finally, we have another bumper crop of herbs growing. When they get too bushy for my kitchen counter, I cut pieces off and save them in my handy-dandy herb mill. I currently have a nice mix of parsley, basil (both regular and red leaf), thyme and oregano in mine. I supplemented the flat leaf parsley in this recipe with a few turns of the mill.

My fears of having to munch on “warm cottage cheese” were assuaged after my first bite. Depending on how much you blend the rest of the ingredients, you can end up with a smooth texture or you can keep some of the texture. The brightness of the sundried tomatoes paired nicely with the mellowness of the artichoke hearts. I’ve also had a chance to eat this cold as a spread on crackers. It’s tres good.

All in all, this was a very easy dip to whip up. It cooks very quickly so if you have something else in the oven that needs more time, you can throw this in there with it and have something to serve to tame the hungry crowd in your living room.